Postmenopausal women experience a disproportionately high burden of low back pain (LBP), largely due to declining estrogen levels. To explore this issue, a study examined the global and regional impact of LBP in women aged 55 years and older, using data from the Global Burden of Disease Study spanning 1990 to 2021 and covering 204 countries and territories. The analysis revealed that incident cases nearly doubled during this period, rising from 35.2 million to 70.3 million.
Prevalent cases increased from 89.9 million to 176.8 million, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) grew from 9.8 million to 19.1 million. By 2021, the burden of LBP in postmenopausal women was markedly higher than in age-matched men—1.78 times greater for incidence, 1.86 times greater for prevalence, and 1.84 times greater for DALYs. Among modifiable risk factors, high body-mass index (BMI) was the leading…
